Lindsay Lohan’s Porn-Star Biopic Is ‘Scary,’ Not Sexy, Director Says

Over the past couple of weeks, the words “Lindsay Lohan” and “porn star” — regarding the actress’ reported starring role in “Inferno,” a biopic of the late “Deep Throat” star Linda Lovelace
— have made for a lot of tabloid stories speculating about just what the troubled actress is getting into next. However, most of the stories and headlines about the film only focus on the fact that LiLo is playing a porn actress, and not what the film is actually about.

On Tuesday, “Inferno” director Matthew Wilder talked with MTV News about the film and Lohan’s role.

“The way I describe this movie is that it’s kind of like a grindhouse version of Ingmar Bergman’s “Scenes From a Marriage,” Wilder said. “There’s a little bit of bait-and-switch because people may know Linda Lovelace’s name and they may know a little bit about her — she was the first globally huge porn star. She made ‘Deep Throat’ in ’72, which was this huge crossover hit — I don’t think there has ever been another porn movie that had that kind of success.”

Wilder said the “meat” of the film focuses on the tumultuous relationship between Lovelace and her husband, Chuck Traynor. “If you read Linda’s book about her ordeal, she describes her relationship in terms that are black and white: the guy is a terrible villain, he abused her, everything that she did he physically coerced her to do, and she escaped him. So in our version we’re kind of reading between the lines a little bit. It’s about her complicity and her strange attraction to him and how in a weird way it was kind of a tragic love story. These are two people who loved each other.”

Not only that, but audiences expecting a slightly romanticized, “Boogie Nights”-type biopic have another thing coming.

“I would say it’s … this is maybe too extreme, but if you can imagine the relationship between Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rosselini in ‘Blue Velvet’ as an entire movie, that’s kind of what the movie is like. There’s a canvas for this movie and it’s about the move from the ’60s to the ’70s, and the ‘summer of love’ getting crushed a bit. There is a bigger canvas than just their story, but it’s very intense, very acting-driven.”

Wilder isn’t sure what kind of rating the film will eventually garner, but he did confirm that there is nudity — although not the kind that people might expect.

“There is definitely nudity in this movie, but the way I describe it to people is that it’s like ‘Schindler’s List’ nudity and not salacious nudity. This is a scary movie. If people think this is some salacious direct-to-video tripe or something, I’m like, ‘No.’ This is a very sober, scary movie about a dysfunctional romance. It’s not something I can imagine that anybody would ever be turned on by, unless they’re really sick.”

Regarding Lohan herself, Wilder had only genuine praise for her, both as a person and as an actor.

“I love her so much,” he said. “I think she is so fantastic. I am amazed every day I’ll read some blurb in some gossip thing and I will read the user comments that are so hateful. … It’s so weird. I think people have a really twisted, wrong impression of who she is, what she’s all about, and the bottom line is that she is a brilliant actor. We’ve worked on this movie, rehearsed it, read it and she is great. I think she is as good as anyone in her age group. I hope this will turn the story for her a little bit and remind people that this is someone who is serious about acting and who is really different from the cartoon portrayed in the tabloid press.”

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